Domestic Pick Up

A U.S. distributor buys the feature shown above. And hopes it's a winner (or at least claws its way into the black).

Home entertainment group Shout! Factory has picked up U.S. rights to The 7th Dwarf, a German 3D-animated feature based on the Snow White fairy tale.

Global Screen, which is handling international sales of the title, also closed deals with Signature Entertainment for the U.K., Rialto Distribution for Australia, Italian International Film for Italy, Flins & Piniculas in Spain and PRIS Audiovisuais for Portugal. Global said it expects to close a deal for France soon. The film had previously sold across Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. ...

There is a whole subset of "niche" animated product. Not particularly polished, and definitely not high budget, but aimed at taking in a small, neat chunk of change before going on to a resilient half-life in video.

The 7th Dwarf looks as if it aspires to be one of the long-form cartoons in that category: a few clicks below the just-released Book of Life, which (in turn) is below Pixar, DreamWorks and Disney animated features.

Will the Shout! Factory be glad it was The7th Dwarf's winning bidder? Guess we'll need to wait to find out.